Planning for 2016

It's that time of year! I was recently emailed a calendar showing all the shows and clinics the barn is attending in 2016, and asked to pick which ones I'm interested in. While I feel like I'm pretty good at setting long term goals, adding in a hard time frame makes me a little anxious! My not so great riding the other night also has me discouraged about my bigger goals.

The superstitious/realistic side of me has a big problem signing up to attend stuff next September, while the little kid in me wants to sign up for everything! Luckily(?), my work/finance situation makes the decision making process slightly easier. I have a tight budget and limited vacation time! Yay, lucky me ;) With those limitations in mind, I signed up for one local-ish (Greater Vancouver area) clinic/show/event per month now through October. There will be a few extra local shows throughout the year that are cheap and basically in our backyard, so I plan on taking full advantage of those too. I also left the door open for travelling to a bigger event mid summer, but we'll see. My current thought process is that this is our first year, we'll be at the lowest levels, and we both just need mileage - no point spending the $ to cross the border or attend destination type events. Maybe next year?

Decisions, decisions

Since Bridget is game, but not necessarily the next big eventing star, the long term plan is to event for fun to where ever we're comfortable, then start focusing more on dressage. Eventing will be the sideline eventually. With that in mind, we'll be attending a few more dressage oriented schooling shows and clinics in 2016 than maybe an average eventer might.

Goals for the year:

Horses:
-Happy, sound ponies
-Show Training level dressage without embarrassing ourselves. Schooling First level solidly. (Both horses)
-Gain as much experience as possible on xc. Aiming for Pre-Entry at some point (the 2'6" division) (Bridget)
-Finish on our dressage score at an event (Bridget)

-Trail ride as often as possible, mix it up and keep the ponies happy!(Both ponies)

-Options for Ginger, either full time lease or sale

-Rider:

-Lose those last 15lbs

-Work hard on my jumping position

-Ride a minimum of 4x a week

-Simplify life. I'm totally overwhelmed right now. 

-Travel somewhere new

To put these goals in context:

-We're all currently happy and sound.
-Bridget and I have done training level tests at a schooling show this fall without embarrassing ourselves. This is not a soft goal though, because the standard will be higher at an away show, and until our canter gets stronger we won't be moving up. Ginger has done training level with trainer M this fall, but I'm a chicken when it comes to taking her new places.
-XC. Neither pony has gone XC, I have never gone XC. I'd like to hope we won't be totally lost since we do have tons of trail miles with water/ditches/logs, etc. This is currently our weakest point.
-Ginger currently has some ambitious teenagers riding her regularly, lets home we can continue forward into something a little more permanent.
-I just ate way too much Christmas food.
-4x a week is doable, try for 5
-My life is chaos. Full time job, 2 ponies to look after/exercise, part time barn job, way too long of a commute from my rented place here...and oh yeah, my 'real' home (and husband G) are a couple of hours away via ferry and I like to spend weekends there...
-Vacation time is refreshed for 2016, air miles account is large and passports are getting renewed this week.